Okay, so long story short, my saddle and bridle are in impound with my truck and I can't get them out because I don't have photo ID (don't ask...it's just a stupid situation all the way around). I'm not sure when I can get my truck out of impound and get my gear out of it. I know I can borrow a saddle from our BO, but he doesn't have a bridle that will fit Aires and I'm not 100% sure the bridle we borrowed from my friend at first will still fit him (if you remember, we're using a draft size bridle now on the third smallest setting O.o).

However, I do want to ride him this next week, if I can. So, that leaves me with the option of riding Aires in the arena, which is great, because we need more arena time. This also leaves me with a few options for riding him, some better than others.

The first option is to hope the bridle fits him and we can find a bit that will work (we're using a 5.5" eggbutt french link and he loves it, but I don't think the BO has anything but a regular loose ring snaffle, which he hates, and I'm not sure it's big enough), and borrow a western saddle from the BO.

The second option is to borrow a saddle and a set of reins and try working Aires in just his rope halter. He's nice and responsive to the bit, usually (he's 2.5, so he has his moments), so I think he'd do fine in just the halter.

My third option is to try to ride him bareback in a halter.

Now, disclaimer time. I have never ridden bareback before. I have a pretty decent seat, I've just never had the opportunity to ride bareback before. Aires has also never been ridden bareback.

Aires now has a good dozen rides on him and he's doing really well. He works off leg pressure (last time we were in the arena, we wove the poles on leg pressure alone), he respects the bit (most of the time out on the trail...100% of the time in the arena), and he listens very well (he's trained on voice commands for walk, trot and whoa).

So, any tips on riding bareback for the first time? That is if I can scramble up onto his tall butt. Lol

Hopefully my friend is up to giving me a boost. First, and last, time I had the BO give me a leg up, it was BEYOND awkward. I don't think anyone has ever shown him how to give a boost. Plus I was a lot bigger then, so that didn't help.

I was just planning on walking around the arena. Maybe going over the trail bridge, weave the poles, that sort of thing, but nothing more than a walk.

The ears is usually where I look (you can always ALWAYS tell Aires' mood about something by his ears...like when he pulled his little jump/buck on our last trail ride...I knew something was coming because his ears flattened back [not pinned, just an annoyed "Dude!" flattened]), so no problems there. And I just naturally move with his walk...bracing against it or being out of rhythm with it just feels...weird, to me.

Yeah, not going to trot yet, but if we did, I'd let him get into his nice long trot. When he does that, you can't even tell he's trotting except that the ground is going by more quickly.

I think my biggest concern was riding him in just the halter. I have heard so many stories (on here) about people saying their greenies are much more responsive to a halter than to a bit, but I'm not sure of the truth in that.

One thing you might want to do is check his suppleness before you ever get on. Stand at his side with the rope halter on and pull on the lead as if you were riding him and asking for a turn. If he willingly gives his nose (the way he would in a bit) then you should be good to go. Also, check to see if he will back up with pressure on the noseband. You'll also need to test that from standing at his side. Generally speaking, if he will back up from the pressure alone, then he'll stop just fine too.

The good news is, he's a hairy beast so if you get to feeling too off balance, just grab a handful of mane and hang on .

Thanks for the tips, smrobs! He's pretty good listening on the ground with just the halter, so I'll do as you suggested and ask for a turn and back on the ground with reins. I think it'll help with turns that he's so good off leg. I can literally turn him in a circle (not a tight circle) with just leg and a little rein.

And I love my wooly mammoth! It's nice that it'll be an advantage for barebacking. I think it's maybe a good thing that we're doing this in the winter instead of in the summer when his coat is all smooth and shiny. With his 4" of hair, I should stick pretty well.

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